It’s bravery, hope, sadness and glee… all wrapped up in a neat little package.

And do you know what I did despite receiving a rejection letter this week? I pushed on. In the wake of that rejection, I went onto receive three more acceptances, which pushes my total for the year up to 18! Not bad considering.

And that rejected story? Well… it’ll be fleshed out to a more respectable (novel) size and published.

I thought I’d put it out there that Iron Faerie Publishing has a few Submission Calls currently open. The latest of which is…

✨Faeries Anthology✨

They are seeking stories about faeries from Irish, English, Welsh and Scottish origins be they from the Seelie or Unseelie Court or the unaligned. Dark and Light elves are also welcome, as well as the more domesticated (household) fey.

Genres wanted are urban fantasy and paranormal or dark paranormal fantasy. No horror.

Word Count: 2000 to 4000 (No stories over 4,000 or under 2,000 words will be accepted)

As you can see, I spent April blogging up a storm, and I loved every literal second of it. (Pun intended) But, in doing so I wore myself out.

My plan before April… was that I would post daily throughout May, but obviously April happened and now we’re ten days in and I’m busy finishing short stories while editing others.

All that means is I’ll take a more leisurely pace until June.

So, on that note what I have been hard at work on is a paranormal romance short story that is just over 15k! It features faeries and woods and the turning of the seasons from autumn to winter and while it needs a little work before it can be submitted for consideration into a rather epic anthology that Juliet Marillier is featured in, I am hopeful. I’m keeping everything crossed that my story is good enough and that I manage to make all the edits in time, because it would mean the absolute world to me if it was published.

And of course I had no contest pre written and there’s only so much cell data available on my mobile phone.

So, I’d love to say I’ve been busy writing up a storm, but sadly no internet meant my kids didn’t quite know what to do with themselves and I had to deal with the cries of boredom.

But it wasn’t a total loss and some new words have been written. And some editing got done on two stories which means everything is moving forward.

While I was away, I did create a group where fans of my work can gather. I’m hoping to grow my readership and this seemed like a logical first step.

You can find the link here. It would mean a lot if you joined. And there’ll be a sneak peek for my upcoming novelette Pendragon coming very soon if you do decide to join, which won’t be shared anywhere else!

There is a lot of conflicting advice surrounding this topic of why you should write daily or why you shouldn’t. Some, compare it to exercise by saying that you wouldn’t exercise daily so why would you want to write daily?

Well this is one mum of four who does exercise daily. Yes! And by exercise I don’t mean lifting weights or anything that strenuous… once upon a time I used to be able to do pull ups with absolute ease, but my upper body strength is not what it use to be, but I do walk up to forty-five minutes a day. I listen to music, I clear my head, and I inevitable plan out various scenes in my head.

Then I come home and I sit down and write what’s been flowing through my head for those forty-five minutes.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise. I’ve talked about this topic before. But I think it needs to be mentioned again.

If you don’t write daily, you can’t hope to hone your skills as a writer, can you?

But what about writer’s burnout? Yes, it’s real and its completely different to writer’s block. But here’s the secret to surviving writer’s burnout.

DO NOT STOP WRITING!

I know, you think I’m crazy. I promise you I’m not.

Writing is hard. It’s often slow and painful. You think you’re never going to get to the end of the story or novel you’re writing. But I promise you, you will. If you keep at it. It’s not a race. It’s a marathon and in a marathon you have to pace yourself. If you don’t you won’t be able to keep up. And yes, sometimes I fall into a pit of anxiety worrying over deadlines and if I can actually write those 5,000 words that some anthology calls ask for. It’s scary and mind numbing. I tend to shy away from sci-fi for this very reason.

But at the end of the day, all you can do is try. Strive for those high possibly unattainable goals and maybe, just maybe you might get lucky enough to reach a few of them.

Publishing is harder. Trust me. And you do need a thick skin. I confessed to a friend in the early hours of this morning that I still feel as if my writing isn’t worth a damn. And yes, publishers keep taking a chance on me, and I do – often – pinch myself being able to consider myself a published author. Both in paying and non paying markets.

Self doubt can cripple authors. Old or new. But it’s no reason to give up.

So here’s 5 reasons why you should write daily.

It’s habit-forming. And while I don’t know how true it is, I’ve heard it said that it only takes 21 days to form a habit.

It’s cathartic. Keeping a journal, for instance is a way to release stress and tension. Getting lost in the creation of a fictional world can help take your mind of day-to-day worries because you’re getting involved in someone else’s.

You’re practicing a skill. It’s like learning a language. If you don’t immerse yourself in the language you’ll soon forget it. The same can be said about the technical aspects of writing.

It eliminates writer’s block. After a while you’ll find yourself tapping into that well of ideas because the words just flow and because the words are flowing the ideas do too.

It will make you more organized. You might not think it but once the habit forms you’ll want to write. I actually feel anxious and frustrated if I can’t get even ten minutes to sit and work on a project that isn’t my blog.

Now, I don’t write a lot as I usually aim for 300 new words a day. Not much at all. Take this past week for instance… not a lot of words of fiction written but quite a lot was accomplished on my blog. And let me tell you, when I first decided to pick up my blog a year ago and get serious with active blogging, I sucked at writing lengthy blog posts. I still suck at writing lengthy blog posts sometimes. But I stick with it.

Writing fiction is no different. Now, there was a time where I didn’t write daily. And my heart and soul suffered for it. You see, writing for me is an escape. It’s cathartic and it’s taken a while, but as much as the self-doubt still grips me, I love the feeling of getting that sometimes elusive acceptance email in my inbox.

But it’s not all about the stories I’ve had published. I do more often than not write for myself. I write what I want to read or about topics that resonate. I put my characters through hell because real life isn’t always easy and fiction is no different.

Today is the end of the sixteenth week of the 365 Writing Challenge and I failed dismally this week in way of words added to pieces of fiction and poetry. However, I did write an impressive 2,114 words on my blog. So, that’s a win in my book.

So, what have I accomplished in the past seven days?

Let’s list it shall we and find out!

Added 100 words to an Iron Faerie Publishing submission piece.

Added 100 words to Le Fay.

Submitted one drabble to Black Hare Press.

Wrote one poem.

Edited a couple of short stories.

And of course, the wait for contest scores continues, as does waiting to hear back on a few – 5 – submissions I’ve sent to publishers in the last month.

Why writing isn’t a chore… and yet I have a list of things to keep me going through to the end of April. And I totally love it, despite how overwhelming it gets some days.

I spent the day organising my writing related to-do list, in between household chores and begging the Gods that it didn’t rain so the washing I had out on the line could actually have a chance to dry, whilst wishing like mad I had a dryer that worked, of course. It’s still not dry…

This is what I have so far… and I swear there’s things I’ve forgotten, so this list will likely be added to over the next few days.

Did I mention I’m trying to keep myself accountable this year? Well I am!

Add new words added to a story story. The word count minimum of which is a self imposed 2000, for an Iron Faerie Publishing anthology submission.

Add new words to a short story. The word count minimum is 7000 and my current count is 4025.

Edit and submit two drabbles for consideration into a Black Hare Press anthology.

Organise my poems. Would you believe most are stored in the notes app on my phone? Backed up of course but still.

Write more poetry. It should be simple but I get so caught up in my short story submissions that I forget to flex my poetry muscles.

Edit an author interview I completed for The Horror Tree, ready to send off Wednesday morning.

Edit short stories. Which short stories? I couldn’t tell you. There’s the several I’ve written in the first quarter of the year that haven’t been sent into anthologies, so I should probably start there…

What’s on your to do list? Anything exciting? My mundane chore list isn’t as exciting as my writing one, but I’ll leave you with the image that is a household of 6 and no dishwasher. Yes, there’s tears and they’re usually all mine.

There are several things you need to consider when creating a character. Some are obvious while others may not be.

And, more importantly, the needs vary a little between short stories and novels. As with short stories you are merely getting a glimpse into a character whereas in a novel, characters need to be more developed and fleshed out.

Characterisation can be hard to manage and even harder to get right. Discovering who your character is can often be very frustrating.

Which is why character profiles are incredibly useful. Even the simplest character profile will help you in getting to know your character.

Because, let’s face it, when you’re dealing with a novel there’s often quite a few characters involved. At some point remembering who had what eye colour is going to get tricky.

Which is why I create character profiles. If not for all my characters, then for the main characters at the start. The minor character profiles tend to evolve on their own and I write additional profiles as needed.

Below is a black PDF version of the rather basic Character Profile I use. It’s nothing overly elaborate, but it does the job.

Yes. The struggle is real! And, along with struggling to find something worthy to write about tonight, I’m struggling to figure out which of my WIPs I should be focusing on.

First World problems, I know. But it’s true, and the answer should be simple, but it’s not.

Too many stories and not enough time, and even more writing opportunities keep popping up out of the woodwork. I swear, my anxiety is in overdrive, because I just don’t want to miss out, you know?

It’s hard. I’d forgo sleep, but I need sleep. There’s only so much coffee a person (namely I) can drink before I wind up bouncing off the walls. I think the official tally is about 6 cups over the course of a day.

So, in the interest of saving me from simply procrastinating and winding up following the internet down some rabbit hole… trust me it happens often. One minute I’m researching something for a story and the next I’m somewhere totally unrelated… would anyone be willing to share what they’re working on at the moment? It doesn’t have to be a novel or short story. It could be a poem or your latest blog post. Who knows, it might create a spark of inspiration for my own writing.

It’s done. I’ve not only finished an epic 5,000 word story, but I’ve submitted it too. It’s currently winging its way into the hands of the Dragon Soul Press editors as I type.

I just hope they like it.

I’ve spent the last forty-five minutes winding down since I did a mad dash to write what I thought was 400 words but was really 600 words in as little time as possible tonight so I could get the story finished.

It took two hours.

Sadly, it’s not much of an update but I had to share nonetheless, now that the excitement coupled with nerves has died down.

Today is the end of the fourteenth week of the 365 Writing Challenge and I’ve managed to write 5008 words across fourteen days. Hard to believe, I know. This of course, doesn’t count the words that go into my blog posts, if it did, I can guarantee you the word count would be higher.

So, what have I accomplished in the past two weeks?

Let’s list it shall we and find out!

Started work on Of Blood and Fire – I’m 4,408 words into the short story which is centred around King Arthur and Camelot. Complete with dragons and… vampires. Yep! You heard correctly. Vampires!